VW may back away from management endorsement, report says

BERLIN -- Volkswagen Group's supervisory board may back away from its recommendation that top management's actions be endorsed by shareholders after German prosecutors launched a new probe against executives including VW brand chief Herbert Diess, a person familiar with the matter said.

VW's supervisory and management boards on May 11 recommended that shareholders ratify actions taken by the management board in 2015, since an investigation into the emissions scandal had until then failed to uncover potential wrongdoing by senior managers.

The two boards at VW said at the time that the proposed resolution was based on the condition that management board members were not implicated in wrongdoing.

The unidentified executive is Diess, the former BMW development chief whom VW hired last July to turn around the troubled VW namesake brand, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Diess could not be reached for comment. VW declined to comment.

The probe was launched after "sufficient real signs" emerged that VW could have had a duty to disclose the considerable financial consequences of its manipulations prior to Sept. 22, 2015 when it first publicly admitted to its wrongdoings, prosecutors said.